Today was a MUCH better day with the kids!! I FINALLY started to interact with them and get to know them, and I think they definitely warmed up to me. I’m so sad though, because tomorrow is our last day with them…and we don’t even get the full day, because they have a field trip in the afternoon, so we only spend the morning with them and then leave. It’s so sad…I know that I will miss them so much, even though I can’t even speak with them.
Today we showed the kids the pictures that they took yesterday, and had them present to the class why they thought their picture was beautiful. After that, we shared OUR pictures with them about life in America. I showed them pictures of my trips to Washington DC, Disneyland, and Hawaii. They really enjoyed it, especially when I showed them a picture that me and Wesley took with Minnie & Mickey Mouse. Hahaha…Mickey Mouse is universal. Anyways, after that, we ate lunch. Usually during lunch, I just eat my food and then watch the kids play (because we have like 2 hours for lunch, but they finish eating in like 5 minutes), so it’s kinda boring and I’m disengaged. But this lunch, a kid named Leon came to sit next to me and began trying to teach me Chinese. So we spent almost all of lunch going through the Chinese alphabet/sounds, tones, random words like hand and nose and Batman and Fantastic Four. It was really good, because I felt like he wanted to teach me not because he felt superior, but because he wanted to share his knowledge with me. And me being his student and learning from him made him feel empowered, which is exactly what we wanted to do with these migrant kids. After a while, all the other little kids began joining in and trying to teach me words, while I just repeated them (eventually I didn’t know what any of the words meant, I was just making Chinese sounds). Leon taught me 4 sentences that I can use to introduce myself (just like we taught all of them yesterday): I am 20 years old, I am thin (I have no idea why he taught me this, because it’s not even applicable), I am from America, and Please be my friend. Hahaha he’s such a cutie. I’m very sad that I won’t get to know him better…I feel like it’s unfair that we came into these kids lives, they became attached to us, and then we’re leaving them after just 4 days. I wonder if it will actually benefit them, or just hurt them more because we’re just like all the other teachers that teach them for 6 months and then leave to teach at a new school…I feel like we should have taught the kids longer, or not teach them at all. I almost feel like they will be worse off, because they become close to us and then we leave, so maybe they’ll feel like they shouldn’t get close to people anymore…
After that, we had the kids draw their dreams and aspirations, and then each of them presented in front of the class. They were such amazing dreams! These kids are so bright that it’s truly unbelievable to me that they’re behind in their education and they’re discriminated against for not being as smart as other kids their age. So many kids’ drawings were so creative and vivid; it totally owned mine. I pretended that I want to be an astronaut (I did at one point, but that was probably about 10 years ago), so I just drew a simple picture of me with some stars and planets around me. But these kids, they’re drawings were so imaginative and artistic. One kid drew that he wanted to be a fighter pilot, with a colorful and detailed plane. Another kid said he wanted to be an architect, and he drew this AMAZINGLY detailed building that I couldn’t have even drawn in my wildest dreams. Leon said that he wanted to be an environmentalist! I know, how do you draw that?? His picture showed people with chainsaws cutting down trees and lots of tree stumps, and then on the bottom half of his picture he showed himself planting trees with lots of fully grown trees all around him. I didn’t understand his presentation, but one of the Chinese students translated it for me, saying that Leon thought the world is like a desert now because there are no trees and everyone is cutting them down, and he wants to rebuild the world so it is like a forest. He’s such a bright kid..it amazes me. I think I’ll miss him the most…he definitely had one of the loudest mouths, but also one of the most contagious smiles. Sigh…it’s so sad that we can’t stay to nurture these kids more. I know they can amount to anything they want to be, but most of them lack the self-confidence to reach their goals.
After we got back from the school, me, Tao, and Tiffany hung out for a bit before going back to the hotel. Actually, we needed to buy markers because we’re decorating paper plates to give as awards to the kids, each personalized with his/her own name and unique talent on it. So we need to decorate those tonight. But anyways, after hanging out with them, I realized I’m REALLY going to miss them too…it’s so sad, because I’m just getting to know these people and then we end up leaving each other so soon. And also, I’m going to miss the Chinese students L L L They’re all REALLY funny, and as much as I make fun of fobs, I totally regret it now. They’re HILARIOUS and even though they can’t speak English really well, you can see that they’re super smart in other ways. I think so often we gauge their intelligence on how well they speak English, so we end up making fun of the fobs in America because we look down on them and think they’re not as smart as us. But the truth is, if they got accepted into a school in America and they grew up in China, they’re probably GENIUSES. Smarter than the rest of us, anyway. They have to be at the top of their school to be able to get into an American school. Anyways, I’m really going to miss them all…they’re all really nice and very funny, and I wish I could spend more time with them. The cultural exchange students’ and Chinese students’ program ends at the end of next week, so the cultural exchange students will be going back to America. But I think the Chinese students will still be around, we just won’t have any organized meetings anymore. I got a couple of their phone numbers though, and I told them that I will be staying for one more month before leaving, so we are planning to hang out next month too. Also, we are all planning to go karaoke-ing next week! I’m SUPER excited for that
On a side note, I had a green bean popsicle today, and it was DEEEELICIOUS! Mmm green bean. Also, McDonald’s here has TARO pie instead of apple pie. I REALLY wanna try it. Maybe later
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